Arts Thread

How can colour, shape, and pattern be used in interiors to help us thrive? After inhabiting sterile psychiatric healthcare spaces, I became inspired to use my art to transform them into optimistic rooms. I noticed these spaces did not reflect the user's needs and often felt depressing and drab. This desire to redesign interiors currently takes shape as furniture, wallpapers, and carpets that add joy to any space. Titled Shape Play, this project began in my final year of BA, and the exploration has continued into my Master's. The colours and shapes used throughout my work have been purposely chosen. In my BA, I developed a book called A Shape a Day, printed in a limited edition of six as a sold-out collection. This year, I further developed the book to account for my new life starting in London. This book contains a daily shape that I drew to match the mood. Similarly, The Color of Emotion connects each colour to a feeling before being organised by hue and hex code. These colours are sourced from photographs, walks, and internet boards before carefully selecting up to five pixels using the eyedropper tool on photos that perfectly encapsulate the image. I use these libraries as my source to create patterns that illuminate my designs. Through workshops, I have involved the community in designing these public spaces. Vulnerability in healthcare spaces is an unavoidable occurrence. Therefore, to make people feel more comfortable, we can give them a say in the design process. I developed a series of sticker sheets to encourage others to create using my previously designed shapes. Stickers are non-intimidating and require no experience. They are the perfect way to encourage people to create! Participants are encouraged to generate shape compositions just as I explores in my work to relax.

My collection, Shape Play, is about exploring psychiatric healthcare spaces and how textiles can be used to improve these spaces. From my experiences, majority of psychiatric healthcare spaces (e.g. therapy waiting rooms and session rooms) are sterile and cold, not considering the needs of the users in these spaces. The Bauhaus movement is what modernized our healthcare spaces to the contemporary complexes we know today but missed out on incorporating the colour and excitement that came with the movement. I took inspiration from the geometric shapes of the movement and aimed to create vivid designs that would inject colour into drab psychiatric spaces. Combining patterned wallpapers, padded wool wall panels, and hand tufted rugs I wanted to bring tactility and enthusiasm into a monotonous space. I really wanted to play in my designs as I hoped I could play in these spaces. A special thanks to Turnberry Rugworks who hand tufted my rug designs for me, and Josh Croll, the videographer for the clips in my animated video.